NEWS RELEASES

JINS Eyewear announced a very exciting launch called The Design Project. It encompasses collaborations with the most influential renowned designers around the world to design eyewear that showcases each designer’s core inspirations and unique ideas.

The JINS Design Project is an effort to create eyeglasses that hold value and relevance in the future by reconstructing them from their shape and materials. JINS plans to continually release products in collaboration with the world’s leading designers through this on-going project. By engaging in a dialogue with designers who have enriched people’s lives by designing furniture and accessories through various unique approaches, JINS continues to devote itself to producing eyewear that holds value in our future.

The first two collaborations are with industrial designers Jasper Morrison and Konstantin Grcic.

First Collaboration with Product Designer Jasper Morrison

Product designer Jasper Morrison looks at design even with the smallest detail, in hopes to redefine the ideal form of eyewear that is common today. Morrison values the qualities of “ultimate basic” and “normal”. His collection inspired by pure simplicity, can be worn by everyone and suitable for all.

Jasper Morrison works across a variety of fields spanning from furniture to tableware, household appliances and stationery. He’s received high acclaim for designing products that are basic and blend into daily life. Although Morrison himself wears eyeglasses on a daily basis, this project marked his first ever engagement in eyewear.

The “Ultimate Basic” Design

Morrison first started this project by studying all of the eyeglasses that he himself usually wears as well as images of others wearing glasses. This process had resulted in the walls of his studio becoming filled with silhouettes of various frames. Based on his research, Morrison continued to work in refining the form of his designs, repeatedly examining and making detailed improvements in 0.2 mm increments to summarize the history of the many pre-existing typologies of eyeglasses within them. The glasses design that he created are devoid of any unnecessary excess and embody “the ultimate basic” of the future that is suitable for all.

Design with Attention to Detail

The frames are shaped in ways that suit everyone regardless of gender, age and race, and become eyeglasses that can be cherished over time. In addition, the nose pad is designed in a different shape for each frame, minimizes the thickness while ensuring comfort, which creates a more natural impression when viewed from the front. The colors have also been carefully considered to fit well with people’s skin tones, such as types with a shiny surface on its front having a matte finish on its reverse.

Collection Lineup

The JINS x Jasper Morrison lineup consists of 4 shapes of eyeglasses in 4 different colors each resulting in 16 different SKUs. All 16 varieties can be worn as just regular optical glasses.

JINS is also introducing a new collection of JINS SCREEN (computer glasses) with Jasper Morrison’s newly designed frames. JINS SCREEN blocks harmful blue light emitted by digital devices by 25% and reduces computer-related eyestrain. The boxed JINS SCREEN comes in non-prescription type and can be worn everyday while working in front of digital screens, but can also be worn as fashionable eyewear.

Second Collaboration with Industrial Designer Konstantin Grcic

Grcic’s collection is inspired by “all-round”, which focuses on the circular round shape of frames. He created a diverse collection that expresses diversity and individuality for those who wear these glasses.

Although Grcic has worn glasses since 15 years old, this had been his first opportunity to design eyewear. While researching and deepening his understanding of eyewear, Grcic brought his attention to round-shaped eyeglasses that trace back to the earliest models, and have been chosen by famous figures throughout history as an item that enriches one’s individuality. Grcic focused solely on the round-shape as it’s a shape that’s anonymous, basic and at the same time holds a strong statement. He further instilled it with contemporary interpretations to create a diverse collection, JINS x Konstantin Grcic, comprising 8 different styles of eyeglasses.

8 different types of glasses

Throughout his design career Konstantin Grcic continued to eliminate all unnecessary elements, in doing so creating high-quality products that are simple yet essential. For a designer working under such philosophy, it had been a challenging effort to design eyeglasses that would fit the unique faces of each and every person.

Once deciding to focus on the round-shape that is basic and yet having an iconic and symbolic quality, Grcic prepared a 1:1 scale image of human eyes. This became a template to explore as many ideas as possible, as he sketched various forms guided freely by his own curiosity. The result of such studies is 8 different designs of round-shaped glasses. Each design was established through a different approach, and named to reflect their concept.

Biography of Jasper Morrison and Konstantin Grcic

About Jasper MorrisonJasper Morrison was born in London in 1959, and studied Design at Ravensbourne College in Kingston Polytechnic at The Royal College of Art and the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. He established his own office, called Office of Design in 1986, where he designed (and continues to design) products at his studios in London, Paris, and Tokyo for companies such as Vitra, Flos, Muji, and Maruni. He’s also published several books with Lars Muller Publishers, and worked on a variety of exhibitions at his shop in London, museums, and galleries around the world.

About Konstantin GrcicKonstantin was born in 1965, and was trained as a cabinet maker at The John Makepeace School in Dorset, England before studying Design at the Royal College of Art in London. He established his own office, Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID), in Munich in 1991. Since then he has designed and developed furniture, accessories, and lighting for leading companies in the design field like Cassina, Flos, Magis, Muji, Plank, and Vitra. He continues to work on a number of significant design exhibitions and exhibition displays for renowned museums and galleries.

About JINS

JINS is a Japanese eyewear brand founded in 2001. The brand has 519* retail store locations globally including 5 U.S. stores. At JINS, customers can receive their prescription glasses in less than 30 minutes and select from over 1,200 styles all designed in Tokyo. Prices of frames start at $60, which include single-vision high index lenses and standard UV and anti-glare coatings. JINS also has a CSR program called Cases for Causes where it collaborates with NPOs and designs cases inspired by their mission. 100% of all sales from the cases go directly to the nonprofits.

*519 retail stores in Japan, China, Taiwan, Philippines, HK and the U.S. as of September 2018. For additional information, visit www.jins.com.